Summer Fun Part #2 - Learning with Water

These 3 simple activities will keep your kids cool and have fun while learning!

1.  Water Target - Use Splash Balls to target throw onto letters, numbers, or sight words written on the ground with sidewalk chalk (Splash Balls are soft and can be used again and again vs. water balloons)

2. Water Painting - Using paint brushes and a bucket of water to get creative and draw on the ground or a fence. Great way to practice writing names. 

3.  Spray Away - Write letters, numbers, or sight words on a wall with sidewalk chalk and use a spray bottle to squirt and aim.  We had fun making addition problems and racing to see who could hit the correct numbers/answers first. 

As always, all my activities shared are super easy. You can focus on skills you are working on and they will keep your kids happy and cool this Summer!  

Summer Fun and Learning Part #1

Summer Learning and Fun

Here are 3 super simple and fun activities you can do today to keep your kids busy while learning the basics this summer!  They can play independently or with a group.

All activities can be adapted to develop the skills your child is working on, from learning letters and sounds, numbers or sight words.

#1 The Alpha Ball - Take a beach ball and write with a Sharpie letters, numbers OR sight words.  Toss or roll the ball.  Wherever you catch the ball, name the letter (number) closest to your thumb.










#2 Solo Cup Challenge - Create and build a structure OR write letters or numbers on the cups and stack the ones you can name.  Cup building is a fun activity for any age and is a free time favorite activity!

#3 Lego Build Hunt - Have your children find 26  2x4 Lego bricks and have them stack into a single tower.  Write a letter of the alphabet on each brick with a Sharpie.  Take the bricks apart and scatter them around the yard.  Have your children hunt for the Lego bricks and put the tower back together again in ABC order.  You can do with with letters or numbers #1-20.

Let me know how your kids like these simple activities!

Happy Summer

Kindergarten Year End Goals...distance learning

This is not exactly the way we envisioned ending the school year, however, like all teachers, parents, and students, we are making the best of the situation.

I wanted to give parents something to work through with their kids that would be meaningful and simple.  All the activities on this tic-tac-toe board were taken from the end-of-year report card (standards-based).  I don't expect all students to have mastery of all these skills now but at least they know what they can continue to work on as they head into First Grade!

End-of-Year Goals for Kindergarten

Spinning Bunnies

Spinning Bunny Experiment
Each Spring we conduct the Spinning Bunny experiment.  Even though we know how to make them spin, it is still fun to drop the bunnies off our stairs and watch them spin to the ground.  If this is your first time, have you and your family "predict" which way the bunny will spin before you begin.

Here is a video to explain how to perform the experiment:  Spinning Bunnies

*Print out the bunnies below so that it fits on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper.

Color, cut out, and fold on the dotted lines. Place a paperclip on the bottom. Hold onto the ears and drop. ​Predict ​which way the bunny will spin? Ears straight up? Two ears down? Or one ear forward and one ear back? 

Spinning Bunny pattern